Podcast: 23 June 2013

This week Sila and Tom are joined again by Charles, to discuss their favourite science snippets of the week.

Charles has more news about one of our favourite animals, the naked mole rat. It’s tiny, ugly, bald and weird, but it’s the superhero of the animal world! Mole rats can’t get cancer, don’t feel pain, and live in colonies like bees. Weeeird. Speaking of cancer, Charles also talks about new regulations banning smoking from universities.

Sila also talks about a new way to discourage smoking: by appealing to our vanity using computer simulations. She also discusses the pros and cons of GM crops. What exactly do people mean when they talk about GM? Are we already using them? Is there even a problem?

Tom has some interesting stories about dogs, including the way they fit into our families, and the fact that they may not really be as guilty as they seem sometimes!